Section 8 Begins: The Horizontal Stabilizer

 Now that we have finally completed the rudder, we are onto the next section.  This section, the Horizontal Stabilizer is much bigger than past sections we have worked on.  I had to run down to my storage unit to pickup the pieces, and I ended up having to get creative.  If you plan to put your parts into storage like me, I recommend trying to keep the longer parts at home, it's just easier than getting back and forth.  Smaller things like tail cone parts, skins, and other pieces are easier to transport.

The HS Spars are a bit long....

Despite the creative method to get parts home, I was ready to go and didn't wait long.  We reorganized my workbenches into a lengthwise arrangement and got to work cleaning up a bit.  It's amazing how much dust, debris, and other crap gets stuck under the tables when they aren't moved for a while.  It was nice cleaning up the garage before moving on.  The first page had me getting the doubler setup and the spar match drilled.  It was extremely straightforward and didn't require any heavy lifting. 

Match drilling the Horizontal Spar

After doing this, it wanted me to disassemble, prime and rivet.  It is a tiny batch of parts and I didn't want to bust out my priming setup for nothing.  The next page had me cutting down the spar caps, stringers, and the doubler for the other spar.  I decided to move onto this section and prep all of these parts.  This would give me a larger batch of parts to prime at once.  The parts weren't hard to cut down, it was similar to the same thing I did on the Vertical Stabilizer spar.  

I also got to do my first bearing of the project.  This was pretty straightforward and explained well.  It had me cleco the sections together and then rivet everything together.  It required me to clamp the parts down to avoid any warping.  The flange parts are all done and ready to get mounted after priming.

Completed Flange Bearing

Next week I will complete deburring the stringers and spar caps.  Then we will be ready to prime everything together and get to riveting.  This part should move quickly and once I have the priming done, we will get to assembling everything.  Also on my list of things to do is a trip to Lowe's.  I need to pick up some wood to make the stands for assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer.

The "Before" Picture.... The End to come in a few updates.

Rudder Trailing Edge and Counterweight Completed!

 So June was quite the whirlwind.  Between school wrapping up for the year, the kids being home part of the month, and work being extremely busy with summer travel starting, there was just not much time to build and keep my sanity.  I ended up taking much of the month off to spend time with the kids and focus on the things that needed the most attention.  Finally, after some time away and finding a free moment, I finally got to the trailing edge of the rudder this week.

Backriveting the trailing edge

My Cleaveland Tool kit had a squeezer attachment for the trailing edge included in it. I've heard some mixed opinions about the tool from the forums and other builders online, but I wanted to give it a shot myself.  I took the first rivet and tested using the squeezer attachment only and wasn't 100% happy with the result.  So I then went to the old fashioned method which was taught in the Synergy class and riveted with the mushroom set on some steel angle.  The steel angle made it easy as I didn't need to constantly reposition the rudder assembly over the small backrivet plate.  This allowed me to basically do one entire half at a time.  

Squeezing a few of the rivets that needed it at the end.

So my final setup to do this was the angle iron of steel on the table edge, the rudder over that, and then my wood and block on top to hold the rudder down.  This worked really well and I had mostly great results.  When I finished the normal back riveting, I noticed a few had a little proudness on the shop head, so I squeezed those and it finished setting them perfectly into the dimples.  So I think the final result was a hybrid of backriveting first and then squeezing to clean up the final result.  This seemed to be the best result, and sounded pretty much like what Austin did from Youtube.  

After taking on the trailing edge, I moved onto the rudder counterbalance arm.  This involved installing a counter weight, drilling my first nutplate, bending the skin to cover it, and then final assembly.  The directions spell out the method pretty well, but it takes a little finesse.  I bent the skin like it said, clamped the wood on it, and did the hammer method.  I wasn't thrilled with how many hits it took to get the bend desired, but it stated an 85% bend in the manual.  I got about there and then started working on the final bend and nutplates.  Using the screws to dimple the skin for drilling was a simple process that is pretty smart when you think about it.  I made the drill holes and dimpled everything up.  After I figured out how to drill the nutplate, it was smooth sailing.  Overall, I am happy with the final result, I am not sure if I should of made the skin a bit tighter to the weight, but I guess I'll find out down the road at final assembly.

Bending the skin around the Counterbalance Weight

Hammering the skin crease in.

After I finished the counter weight skin, it was time to roll the leading edge, the last step of the Rudder assembly.  Section 5 calls out for a 1 inch pipe, but the RV-10 manual says use a 1.25 inch pipe.  So a trip to Lowes was in order to get the correct pipe.  My reading, Youtube review, and other resources all have very mixed opinions on the pipe size and method.  I have seen some use clecos, some use duct tape, and others use brute force to get the roll.  It's not the most simplistic idea when looking at it, but I am sure I will figure it out.  So off to Lowes and then we will close out the Rudder for good.

Stiffeners Riveted and Trailing Edge Work

 The last month has been a bit busy with school breaks and getting the house ready for spring.  Lots of yard cleanup, Easter, and the kids being off have slowed down my time.  I finally got around to back riveting for the first time on the plane.  I utilized my two backing mats and put the back rivet plate between them.  This kept the parts at a good height without any major bend going over the side.  I see why some people like having a bigger plate or sink it into their table, but I think the ability to move the plate is more beneficial.  I noticed as you got to the ends of rudder skins, it was beneficial to just slide the plate down the table instead of the part.  Otherwise, you have a huge section hanging off the end.  Back riveting was pretty straight forward.

After I finished the back riveting I was rather impressed with how everything looked.  Time to start prepping for sealing and rivet the bottom rudder horn into place.  I took the recommendation of many people and ended using a pull rivet for the very last hole on the training edge of the horn.  It was way too tight and I tried more than once to buck and indirect rivet it with terrible results.  That was just way too tight a spot and I didn't want to slaughter the horn itself beating on it with the rivet gun.

After some time away from the project for the housework and the lack of a second set of hands, I finally got my father to come over.  He was going to be my second set of hands to hold the rudder skin while I joined them together.  The directions were pretty clear in describing the process, and we read through it a few times.  I ordered the cartridge style proseal figuring that one would be the perfect amount to utilize, but mixing that thing was a royal pain!  It took forever it felt like to mix thoroughly through using the little dowel and mixer in the cartridge.  After what felt like an eternity, we were ready to rock and roll.

Setting Pop Rivets in the stiffeners

I started with joining the base as instructed and pop riveted the first stiffeners.  Its pretty tight without severely bending the skin back, so it was easier to use a manual pull riveter.  I was really careful and layered the proseal as thinly as I could per the directions.  I tried to use a little roller at first, but that just gummed up and didn't do anything.  I ended up using a few popsicle sticks which I stole from my daughters craft bin.  That worked well and I had one which was snapped in half, so the pointed end was great to get into the tight corner against the skin.  After a long session of cleco's and pop riveting, the skins were joined and the trailing edge sealed.  

Trailing edge secured and curing

I utilized a technique that my Technical Advisor has suggested and others I have seen do online.  This was to go purchase a piece of aluminum angle iron.  This is a great and thicker straight edge which I used to support the trailing edge.  I utilized one rudder skin and marked all the holes and drilled the angle iron.  Afterwards, I deburred it and checked it to make sure everything matched.  This gave me a straight and stable edge to cleco the entire trailing edge to while I prosealed it.  Upon completion, I had it completely clecod to the angle iron and left it to cure for a few days.

The kids have been off this past week so no work has been done.  It was a good time to let the edge cure and solidify before I start cleaning out the holes.  Next week I will clear out everything and get to finishing up the rudder.  I'm hoping I can finish the rudder up before my trip next month, and then I will jump right into the Horizontal Stabilizer upon getting back.

Chapter 7 Begins : The Rudder

 So we have completed the last remaining step of chapter 6 and have officially broken ground into chapter 7.  Chapter 7 is the Rudder, which will be mounted eventually to the back of the Vertical Stabilizer from chapter 6.  This piece uses some different and new building techniques which I did not get to use in chapter 6.  During this chapter I will do a bunch of backriveting, some pull rivets, rivet a trailing edge, and roll a skin.  I am looking forward to this, the only thing I didn't do in my fundamentals class was the actually adhesive that goes in the trailing edge.  On that note, I should go order that soon so its here when I get to that point.

Today I pulled out the beginning parts and got organized.  The first few steps of chapter 7 have me labeling the cut lines for separating the pieces.  Many of the pieces come together as on larger piece, and some need to be cut apart or trimmed down.  The directions are very clear and make the process easy, its just a tedious job making sure to line things up.  I wish I had a metal break as the did in Atlanta, but the cost isn't conducive to my light use.  Here are the pieces I had marked up which are ready for cutting.  This took me a little over an hour to get done.  Next session will be cutting and deburring all of these parts down. 

Marked Rudder Pieces - Pre-Cutting

Marked Rudder Pieces - Pre-Cutting

Another item on my to do list is to finish organizing the parts.  I have honestly been debating getting a storage unit but that is going to be about $150 a month.  I really don't want to do so yet but spaces are limited around my area and I don't want to miss out on the right size one.  Optimally, the unit will be large enough to store the bigger pieces as I finish them and other parts I don't need yet.  This will also free up much more garage space to allow for work once I get to the tail cone and bigger pieces.  I have to make some calls and see what's available.